CV Preparation
Your CV is the first thing a company sees, and often the only thing between you and a real conversation. Before a human ever reads it, an applicant-tracking system (ATS) usually scans it for relevance in seconds - and decides whether a recruiter sees it at all.
Learn on the move: press play and turn your commute, walk or drive into time that grows your design career.
Listen to the full CV Preparation course on DesignPath
That first sort is where most strong designers lose: a beautiful portfolio can't save a CV that never clears the filter. It is the gate on every application, doubly so for competitive or senior roles where dozens of strong CVs compete on tiny signals. It matters again for career switchers, who have to connect non-design experience to the role themselves, because no one else will.
This module is about writing a CV that clears the filter and earns the interview - and tailoring it to each role so the match is impossible to miss.
CV Structure
A recruiter opens your CV and gives it about six seconds before deciding "read properly" or "next." In those six seconds they aren't reading - they're scanning for landmarks: your name, your most recent title, a portfolio link, some sign you've done the kind of work they're hiring for. A winning CV isn't the one with the most on it. It's the one where those landmarks sit exactly where the eye goes looking for them.
That's what structure is for. Get the skeleton right and everything else - your wording, your projects, your numbers - actually gets seen.
The Order Is the Message
People read a CV top to bottom, most-recent-first, and rarely reach the end. So the running order isn't neutral - it's a priority list. Whatever matters most for this role goes highest. For almost every designer, the stack looks like this:
- Header - name, role, contact, and your portfolio link
- Summary - one or two lines that position you
- Experience - reverse-chronological, the core of the document
- Skills & tools
- Education
- Extras - languages, certifications (optional)
The sections below unpack each one.
Header: Make the Portfolio Link Impossible to Miss
The header is your name, a role line ("Product Designer"), a professional email, your city or timezone, LinkedIn - and, for a designer, your portfolio URL. That link is the single most important line on the page; many recruiters click it before they read a word. Put it right in the header as a real, clickable address, not buried at the bottom.
Skip the things that cost space and add risk instead of signal: your full street address, date of birth, and - in most markets - a photo. They give a reviewer reasons to judge before they've seen your work.
Keep the Summary to Two Lines
Under the header, a short positioning line: who you are, what you're strong at, what you're aiming for. "Product designer with 4 years in fintech, focused on complex flows and design systems." That's it. Drop the "passionate, results-driven team player" filler - it's true of everyone, so it tells a reviewer nothing. If you're switching careers, this is where you name the pivot in one honest line so no one has to guess.
Experience: The Part That Actually Gets Read
List roles reverse-chronologically - most recent first - because the recent work is what a recruiter cares about most and reads first. For each role: title, company, dates, then a few bullets.
Why this order and not a skills-grouped "functional" CV? Because reviewers are trained on the chronological format; anything else makes them hunt for the basics, and hunting is exactly what you're trying to prevent. A layout that hides your timeline reads as hiding something, fairly or not.
Lead each role with your strongest, most relevant bullet, and keep the bullets about outcomes rather than chores - there's a real craft to phrasing those. Give recent and relevant roles more space; let old or unrelated ones shrink to a line.
Skills, Education, and the Rest
- Skills & tools - a scannable list, honest about your level. Tools (Figma, etc.) alongside methods (research, prototyping, design systems). This block does double duty as keyword real estate for the filters your CV has to clear.
- Education - degree, school, year; kept brief. For career switchers, bootcamps and courses live here too. The further you are from graduation, the smaller this section gets.
- Extras - languages in recognized levels (CEFR: A1-C2), relevant certifications. Include them only if they earn their space.
Keep the Whole Thing on One Page
One page, one main column, consistent hierarchy: the same size for same-level headings, aligned dates, real text rather than images. Two reasons this matters. First, a recruiter shouldn't have to work to parse your layout. Second, an automated parser reads a single clean column far more reliably than a designed two-column PDF, where text can scramble or vanish. Save the visual flair for your portfolio - the CV's whole job is to be read fast and filed under the right role.
Let AI Check the Skeleton
Before you polish wording, get the structure right - and AI is good at spotting a lopsided one. Paste your draft and ask: "Is anything important buried? Is this order right for a [role] job?" Or hand it your raw experience and have it return a clean, ordered skeleton for you to fill in.
The rule holds: AI drafts the frame, you decide what deserves the top of the page. It doesn't know which of your projects matters most for this role - you do.
